Heartbeat
by BlueVibrance
Summary: Spindle yearns to know what it's like. Not to- well be like her. She and her brother never leave the house they were- no. Not born but created in. She is the first of many, and she hates it. She hates the way she can't feel like a normal cat. She hates the whispers and sideways glances she gets. She hates her mechanical heartbeat.
1. Home

The wood creaked beneath her paws, it was the same. Always the same.

She felt cold, and she knew she needed to consume nutrients to keep her systems functioning.

Carbon, mostly. It would fuel her. It would allow her heart, a hunk of metal, to pump her "blood." It would give her muscles movement.

Allow the mass of wire that was her brain to sort, collect, and respond.

So all in all, it was important.

Spindle padded over to a stainless-steel dish, nudging a button above it, a few small chunks of solid carbon clunked out.

They tasted dry, bitter. Like dusty hunks of greyscale. Greyscale. That was her life.

She would "Eat" and she would go to presentations. Where she and her younger yet older brother were both flaunted like crown jewels.

And well, they sort of were.

For the longest time, humans always had the basics of AI. They could calculate, measure, organize, and do all sorts of bland tasks of that sort. But creating life? Now that had been impossible. Any person who offered that up was scorned, proclaimed a madman.

Not anymore. She and Axel were the first.

Speaking of whom, the small creature trotted forwards.

The size of a kitten, giving him a cute and innocent air, especially next to the taunt and tired adult design of his sibling.

He had been the first, Spindle the second. And now? Who knows who the third, forth, and millionth would be.

Axel grinned, his fur coal-black and eyes striking amber. Just like Spindle. Only his false fur was longer, thicker.

He looked like a cotton wad.

Spindle laughed as he overshot, clattering into the dish with a metallic clang.

Axel brought joy, he wasn't dark. Bland. Greyscale. Not like Spindle. He could almost be.. Real. He could almost have a heartbeat.


	2. Criminal

Spindle let air pass betweeen her teeth. Axel was curled up in a small, dark mass beside her, letting his systems fix small problems and bugs in his body, as she had been just a moment ago.

Darkness pressed in on her, but with a blink, her systems returned to the awake mode.

Something was very, very wrong. The constant buzz of a security system was ceased. She shifted as she stood, creeping forwards.

The chemical and physical makeup of everything around her flashed up in pristine blue letters in her vision.

She glanced back at Axel. He was a prototype to her more complete build. Copper to her titanium. Rubber to her graphine.

With a sigh, she turned and continued on. She didn't speak. Didn't halt. There was a figure, dark and hunched as they worked outside the home.

A warning belled out in her nervous system. This was a stranger, not yet catalogued in her brain chip.

Her scanner said they were male, and they were caucasian. The man wore polyester from head to toe, covering almost everything. The stuff he was spraying over the house?

Gasoline.

She let out a warning screech. The figure straightened and pulled something from his pocket and tossed it.

Carbon.

Carbon in the form of wood and powder.

And fire.

The house set ablaze.

The man was chorusing in cries of " Stop of bending of nature!"

Spindle darted back inside, a small beep telling her that the ash and smoke could impair her hearing and smell systems. She raced inside, bolting up the stairs that lead to her creator's room.

She was barely able to jump back down in time to avoid a crushing death.

A thin film slid over her eyes, to light up heat signatures. She selected the "intense heat" setting and looked up at the partially destroyed roof. Flames danced around her.

A blue-ish figure stumbled and collapsed against the brighter, amber and gold fire. The more vibrant colors taking over his body.

Axel screeched from somewhere deeper in the home.

And of course she slid the film back off and went to find him.

The flames lapped uselessly against her, it couldn't melt her. She was too complex. Her materials too expensive.

Now, Axel on the other hand.

Copper dripped from his body, the partially melted rubber reeked as it oozed off of him, he struggled to stand just one more time before complete system failure.

And Spindle fled.

She didn't want to be crushed, after all.

She ran and she ran and she ran.

Her creator was dead, his blueprints would be destroyed in the blaze.

Axel was destroyed, rendering her the only AI still alive.

If she was found again, she would be dismantled. The scientists needed to know how to build an AI, after all. The only plans destroyed. The creator dead.

The brick and tile eventually turned to forest and Spindle slowed. She stopped to breathe. To let oxygen enter and circulate through her body.

A voice rasped from the forest. Not human, but feline.

 _"Kittypet."_


	3. Wild Cat

Spindle turned on her heel, a pair of golden eyes and bared teeth sparkled in the darkness.

"Sorry." Her voice sounded gravelly, too metallic. Spindle let her voice systems vibrate for a moment before trying again. "S-sorry."

The cat crawled out from the shadows. Black fur with striking white accents.

Blue letters read that it was a mixedbreed, and a she-cat.

"What are you doing in our territory, kittypet." The mixedbreed spat with a vicious lash of her tail.

"I was just passing through. You see. My- " She hesitated for a moment, having to draw up the feline word for _human._ "Housefolk. The home burned down. I was barely able to escape. My little brother and housefolk both died. I was running away from the fire."

Something in the old cat's eyes softened. When she spoke again, the snarl was gone. "What is your name, Kittypet?"

She flicked her tail and replied quickly." Spindle. My name is Spindle."

The bicolor nodded, lifting her head. "I am Blazemask. Deputy of ShadowClan. Would you like to come with me? To our camp?"

Spindle blinked. This- _Blazemask_ was strange indeed. But. You know what? There was nothing else she could do.

"Alright. I will come with you."

The cat and not-quite-a-cat-but-nobody-needed-to-know-that bounded over the forest floor. Crooked pine and twisted brush passed by them in a blur. Mud grasped at their paws.

At last, they came to a small dip in the earth. It was surrounded by brambles, it looked- well it looked wierd.

Blazemask lifted her tail, a signal to stop.

"Who's that?" A pale tabby, _mixedbreed tom_ , flicked a tattered ear.

"Hello, Turtlebeak. This is Spindle. She will be staying with us for a while." Blazemask lifted her head, the she-cat looked regal. Imposing.

Turtlebeak bowed his head in a submissive manner, but his eyes

still met Blazemask's. It looked almost... Respectful. Looking into a cat's eyes was supposed to a sign of aggression, apparently not among these cats.

"Come on, Spindle. Let's go."


End file.
